Introduction: Understanding Indonesia

This special issue of the Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities (JISSH) has its origins in a series of seminars jointly sponsored in 2005 and 2006 by the Asian Studies Institute (ASI) of the Victoria University of Wellington and the Indonesian Embassy in New Zealand. Although many papers from those seminars appeared in institute proceedings, the audience remained largely confined to New Zealand, despite the presence of fine articles that have deserved wider circulation. We are pleased here to offer new versions of some of those essays, updated in the light of recent developments, along with specially commissioned contributions.